Tuesday 12th November 2013

What did we do?
In this lesson, we embarked on a "Character creation exercise" in which we worked on our posture and body language, utilising the Brechtian techniques we had studied, on exaggerated gesture, voice and facial expression. As a practitioner, Brecht believed in "caricatured" gesture so in order to develop our understanding of his techniques and methods we created "caricatures" of a "champagne drunk", "special brew drunk", "pregnant lady" and a member of the "elderly". In order to fully understand the given circumstances of these" caricatures", we had to exemplify their status and position in society from our postures. This was useful in establishing the social/political hierarchy that we face in our everyday society and how our economical/cultural upbringing can affect our mindset, views, beliefs and health.
We also applied a "tableau exercise" to our work of "soldiers leaving the war behind and burying the dead".
 In my group, we utilised the freeze frames as a way of explaining a soldiers struggle of burying his best friend. Our first freeze frame exemplified "Soldiers marching away from battle".
 We used the "Evolutionary scale" as a stimulus for our "freeze frame" for instance, the soldier nearest to the back of the line was crouched down in tears, mourning the death of his/her best friend and the soldier nearest to the front of the line was proud and tall as if walking away from his/her troubled past. We decided that this would be powerful in exemplifying the troubled situations many soldier's have to embark on everyday and how it affects individuals in different ways whether it be breaking down or shutting off the pain.
Our last task was to respond to the scenario of a strike at a factory and how that would affect a "rich capitalist owner" and a "pregnant worker".
 In order to understand the differences between the two characters, we had to first understand the most realistic social and economic circumstances both individuals would be under in order to present convincing caricatures of Brechtian theatre. In my take on the two character's, I thought that the "pregnant worker" would have been more financially affected by the strike than the "rich capitalist owner" and therefore had to put a stronger emphasis on emotion and low posture into my version of a "pregnant worker" as opposed to a more uptight, confident representation of a "rich capitalist owner".

What Went Well?
Undergoing the "Character creation exercise" developed my understanding of Brecht's style of theatre. I became aware that he wanted his performers to develop "body language" and "facial expression" in order to present a character in the most exaggerated way possible.
His style as opposed to Constantin Stanislavsky is far from "Naturalistic" and I was able to develop this understanding through undergoing the practical exploration of developing a "caricatured" exaggerated representation of an individual /group in real life.
Separating these "caricatures" into a "campaign drunk", "special brew drunk" and "pregnant lady" helped me to understand the rudiments of developing a character and how posture, body language and tone of voice can present a "caricature" in different ways.
I also believe that the first exercise on "caricatures" developed my execution of the "rich capitalist owner" and the "pregnant worker" as I had a an overall fuller, well rounded understanding of applying Brechtian techniques to my style of acting.
The tableau exercise in which we applied freeze frames to "given circumstances" of death and loss in war, presented me with a structure in which me and my group could develop and expand into caricatured symbols of soldiers at war. It presented me with a premise by which I could use my understanding of the harsh realities of war and conflict and embed them in short effective frames.

Even Better If?
I believe that we could have developed the "Tableau" exercise further in presenting the social power differences in society between varying social classes. This would have further embed my knowledge of how social hierarchy can effect a mass population and believe I could use the knowledge from the piece to apply to Brechtian Political Theatre on the topic of "Immigration".
However, I understand that developing this understanding over a broader sense would take time and therefore believe that we were able to achieve a wide range of knowledge over the time we were allocated.